November 30

Every morning starts out in the office. Tuesday afternoon and evening, I made alterations to shed attached to the house so it could accommodate a riding lawnmower. Much deliberation, followed by some I-can't-undo-these-saw-cuts later and darkness of night, I achieved my purpose. Some tweaking remains, but I managed to turn part of the wall into a hinged wall that still works with the door already there.

November 27-29

Saturday, Rebecca headed home, and Bonnie and I left for Gadsden, AL where we would worship the next day at two congregations in the area. Four hours later, not counting stops, we arrived at our motel where we would stay the next two nights. The beautiful colored lights on trees bordering the shoreline of the nearby river were enchanting. Further away, the reflection of bridge comprised of arches likewise presented a beautiful picture to our eyes.

Sunday morning, we were pleased to meet brethren at the North Gadsden Church of Christ, longtime supporters of World Evangelism. I taught the Bible class and preached during worship. Afterward, we were treated to Ryan's Steakhouse. Just a little leisure in the motel room, instead of driving hours between Sunday appointments as we usually do, we worshipped with the Rainbow Church of Christ, also in Gadsden. Again, we were delighted to be well received by brethren with whom we were formerly unacquainted. Following worship, we were guests of brethren at Cracker Barrel. We gained five pounds each over the last few days (don't tell Bonnie I said so!).

Before heading back to Winona on Monday, we stopped by a local park and enjoyed the sights at Noccalula Falls. There is an interesting legend about this falls; see the city website at https://www.cityofgadsden.com.

As pretty as it was, the falls and surrounding area certainly is much prettier at some other seasons of the year. There was a chapel at the falls with a striking beauty in any season.

November 22-26

Monday through Wednesday, we worked in the office — so much to do, so little time to get it done. Thursday, other than being Thanksgiving Day, Rebecca who had come down from Collierville for the holiday, Bonnie and I spent all day cleaning up a month's worth of lawn debris that accumulated during our trip overseas and beyond our return earlier in the month. A good time was had by all! Friday, we didn't do a whole lot of anything noteworthy; it felt good.

November 20-21

Saturday morning we rendezvoused with Robert Rawson (from Charleston, MS) at the World Evangelism Building around 9:00 a.m. He stopped by on his way to Kosciusko, MS to conduct a funeral. Bonnie, Robert and I loaded hundreds of books into the back of his vehicle for a new Bible school that is beginning in Alamo, TN.

Next, Bonnie and I headed the van toward Collierville, TN for our bed and breakfast, Rebecca's home. We stopped over in Horn Lake, MS at the Texas Roadhouse; I had been wanting to eat there since we were in India and Myanmar — eating primarily rice and chicken for 30 days. We split a meal, but with the free appetizer (via email coupon) we still had more than we could conveniently eat at one sitting. Buying a gift card (with which we, then, paid for our meal) also netted us a free, frozen, 12-pound turkey. Doggie Bag in tow, we proceeded to Rebecca's home, stopping long enough to give the car a long needed auto bath.

Our daughter asked that we arrive early enough to work on an overheating light switch at her front door and on her garbage disposal. Tightening a loose wire on the switch seems to have cured the one problem. The non-working garbage disposal required just a little more attention. Both a broken wire at the switch and a broken wire nut inside the bottom of the disposal were addressed, and the disposal works again. I did destroy one circuit tester and blow a fuse, though, before I realized the need to wrap the switch with electrical tape to insulate it sufficiently from the metal box and grounding wire, as all of those components fit too tightly together.

The occasion for this visit to our daughter's home was that I was scheduled to speak Sunday morning at the Collierville Church of Christ for Bible class and morning worship; in class I made a PowerPoint presentation about our 2010 trips to India and Myanmar (Burma), while for worship, I made my presentation about The One True Church of the Bible. Initially, I had been scheduled to speak at the 1:30 p.m. assembly, too, but there was not enough time to comfortably travel in the afternoon from Collierville to our next appointment outside of Killen, AL at the New Antioch Church of Christ.

Almost three hours after leaving Collierville, we pulled up into the parking lot of the New Antioch Church of Christ. Those in attendance that night seemed the most interested in the one million dollar bill I gave each of them; this one has my contact and ministry information on the back of it. After I made my presentation, Motivated by the Cross, about our mission trips to India and Myanmar, we headed back to Winona, MS, arriving about 10:45 p.m.

November 15-19

Monday, again we were at the paper store before returning to Winona. Some equipment problems left us scrambling for an alternative way to publish our newsletter. Our twin digital duplicators, made in Japan, after all these years, reverted back to Japanese language on the LED panel, plus Japanese dimensions for anticipated paper sizes, etc. So far, no one can help me out with this problem, including the technician responsible for repairing such equipment in Mississippi, two hours away.

We opted to purchase a color laser printer, which required an exchange of 11X17 paper for 8.5X14 paper; we knew we could not afford a laser printer that could handle the 11X17 paper. We had been wanting to upgrade our equipment sometime in the future to make the newsletter more presentable. We have not made any new equipment acquisitions because we have not been satisfied with the increased expenses, but equipment failure propelled us into making a decision, and so we decided to move forward. Experimentation with use of color was frustrating, trying to balance use of color with the expense of toner. Finally, we struck a workable balance, I think. It also helped that we moved over 160 of our newsletter recipients from printed newsletters to email newsletters, saving production and postage costs. It still took us through Friday to finish preparation of our newsletter mailing and to get it to the post office.

Along the way throughout the week, we attended to various office duties, including book orders and taking a mailing of Global Harvest magazine to the post office. Earlier in the week, we helped load Jerry and Paula's jeep and trailer attached to the jeep with boxes of books headed for a cargo container in Texas, headed for the Philippines.

Two nights this week a dog running loose in our neighborhood went under our house and began barking. Before our overseas trip in the fall, we found cats taking refuge under our house through two openings. Finally, I boarded up the two openings, and I haven't heard any barking — or meows! What next?

November 12-14

Friday afternoon, Bonnie and I headed out for Henderson, TN where we were lodging while working with the Milledgeville church of Christ in its Gospel meeting Friday through Sunday. For supper, we were picked up by Connie and Bill Shannon, and we dined at a Mexican restaurant in Henderson; their son joined us for supper. Brother Shannon is the minister for the Milledgeville congregation.

Friday and Saturday nights as well as Bible class and two worship periods on Sunday I preached and taught a number of lessons. We were well received by the brethren; we make new friends of brethren we newly meet every week that we travel from congregation to congregation.

Saturday for lunch, we crashed the alumni party at Freed Hardeman University as guests of Connie and Bill. Sunday night, we traveled back to our Collierville bed and breakfast — Rebecca's house.

November 8-11

Monday, we stopped by the paper store before returning to Winona, MS, and through Thursday, we attempted to catch up on some of the office work that we missed doing for the 30 days of our mission trip to India and Myanmar. Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, we attended a Gospel meeting at the Elliott, MS church of Christ; we struggled to stay awake, and I surrendered the steering wheel each evening for the return trip to Winona (because I was too tired to drive safely). I also had grown ill, perhaps with bronchitis, about the time we started our trip home from Myanmar. Taking an antibiotic and over the counter medicines, I tried to beat in down and bounce back before I began a Gospel meeting myself on Friday. I was concerned because I was loosing my voice — a tragedy for a Gospel preacher.

November 7

Sunday, we scheduled no appointments because we expected to be suffering from jet lag, and we were. My apologizes to Chad Ezelle if we didn't appear too attentive that Lord's Day while he preached. Naps were in the forecast for the afternoon!

November 5-6

Friday morning, Bonnie and I left Yangon by air toward America. As always, we have mixed feelings when it comes time to leave Burma. We're ready to get back to the familiar and comfortable life in America, but we are reluctant to leave the brethren we have come to love dearly. We really do think of Burma as our second home. Here are some limited snapshots of the skyline of the city from our hotel.

According to the calendar, we left Friday morning and arrived back in Memphis, TN Saturday morning. Simple, right? Not exactly, when one flies back in time! From Yangon we flew three hours to Singapore, where we waited three hours for our next flight.

While awaiting our next flight, we toured the butterfly garden in the airport. Butterflies sometimes attack me, and I thought upon entrance into the two-story enclosure that I was being attacked again. However, upon re-entering the butterfly sanctuary, to my surprise, I watched them and they paid little attention to me. (As a child, a butterfly flew into the car window and attached itself to my lips —and wouldn't let go! I was traumatized! I'm just now recovering.)

The butterfly garden also sported some carnivorous plants. The weather was rainy and very humid, and aside from the screens overhead and the glass walls, it was open to the outside. The butterfly was a nice diversion while awaiting our next flight. Previosuly on other occasions, we enjoyed the large indoor fish pond, and all the green bushes and colorful flowers. The entire airport setting is mall-like.

Then, we left on a 17-hour flight to San Francisco, with a one-hour layover in Hong Kong (long enough to refuel the plane and run through an intensive security check before reboarding).

Finally in San Francisco and after retrieving our luggage, we waded through customs. It wasn't too daunting, but this was the first time in San Francisco that Custom's Agents didn't simply wave us through; we did, though, go through customs once in Detroit (also routine). Four hours later, we boarded a plane for Cincinnati, OH! That's way past Memphis! That flight lasted about four hours, and leaving our arrival gate and heading directly to our departure gate (except for a brief pit stop), we found our next flight already boarded! About two hours later, we arrived at 8:20 a.m. in Memphis, TN. Instead of 24 hours from the morning of one day to the morning of the next day, we traveled 34 hours, all of which we were awake or in a semi-stupor.

We headed to breakfast with Therman and Sadie Hodge and her brother, as well as Don Robertson who graciously takes us to and picks us up from the airport in Memphis. Rebecca was on a trip in Minneapolis, MN for the school system for which she teaches.

Next, it was to bed for a few hours (hours beyond what we had intended as we wanted to adjust to Central Standard Time again —12 time zones different from what we had been living for the past 30 days). By the way, in the wee hours between Saturday night and Sunday morning, it was time to switch to daylight savings time, too.

We did wake in time to go get Rebecca from the airport, but our car — idle for 30 days — had a dead battery. Therefore, we took Rebecca's car to fetch her.

November 1-4

Monday and Tuesday, Bonnie and I resumed teaching at the Bible school in Hmawbi. I completed on Tuesday afternoon the course I was teaching on Homiletics and Preaching. Bonnie taught the ladies on these two days, but did not finish her material. Bonnie and I have been teaching these weeks in Myanmar in the afternoons mostly, but L.T. and Therman have been teaching in the mornings, and due to the amount of material Therman had prepared to teach, he taught part of most afternoons as well. Tuesday, though, Therman returned to Scott's Market with Winsome, as she had errands in downtown Yangon and retrieved a piece of luggage Bonnie and I were having repaired. JoAn has been feeling poorly, and she (along with L.T.) remained in Yangon at the hotel on Tuesday.

Wednesday, Bonnie and I ate with L.T. and JoAn at the Chinese restaurant on the roof of our hotel. None of the restaurant staff spoke English and we didn't speak the language or languages with which they are familiar. Consequently, we ordered somewhat blindly from the names of the items that appeared on the menu. Well, what I ordered for Bonnie and me was fiery hot with spices, and we could not eat very much of it. We ate some of the chicken dish and the vegetables that JoAn ordered, and rice, of course.

At supper, JoAn became very sick with wildly fluctuating blood pressure. With some improvement overnight, L.T. and JoAn left a day early and with Wayne as he flew to Bangkok, Thailand. Since Myanmar has been shut up tightly in anticipation of its national election on November 7 (international phone and Internet services and domestic air travel have been suspended, and other measures such as a curfew are pending), it was important for JoAn to leave Myanmar in case she would need emergency medical treatment (perhaps in Singapore) or medical evacuation to the United States.

Therman Hodge taught the lesson Wednesday evening at Winsome and Sheila's home. Several from the congregation that meets in Esther's home were also present, as well as some brethren from other congregations around Yangon, Hmawbi and other regions of Myanmar. Since this was the last time that several of us would be together with our dear Burmese brethren, it was a touching time of exchanging well-wishes.

P.R. Swamy
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